Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to water treatment systems and, in particular, to a mobile flowback water and/or produced water re-use system.
Description of Related Art
In a hydraulic fracturing process, fracturing fluids are injected under pressure into a bore hole. The pressure drives the fluid into cracks and fractures forcing such openings to become larger and to propagate. The injected fracturing fluids mix with groundwater, gas, and other materials. When the pressure is removed, the fluid mixture flows back to the surface. Gas is then extracted from the fluid mixture. This fluid mixture, which is commonly referred to as “flowback water”, has concentrations of oil, grease, metals, sealants, salts, and other unwanted materials. After the initial discharge of flowback water, the well continues to produce oil, water, and various other materials. The water continually produced from the well is commonly referred to as “produced water” and is similar in composition to flowback water.
Due to the typical lack of water resources needed for drilling operations, flowback and produced water are recycled for further use. As such, with the ongoing drilling for oil and gas, there is a high demand for efficient recycling processes that can effectively remove unwanted materials from flowback and produced water.